Beau Is Afraid

Right from the start we appreciate that "Beau" is going to have an hard time with life. Luckily we skip forwards forty years and find him living an almost siege existence in a lawless city where sirens and racket keep him awake for most of the night. It's after one such a lively night that he suddenly awakes realising that he must get to the airport to go and visit his wealthy mother. Suffice to say, events conspire and he doesn't quite make the trip... He calls to alert his mother only to get the UPS man on the phone standing over an headless corpse. His mother? Well he now has to make a journey - without a functioning credit card - in time for her funeral. What now ensue are a series of mildly entertaining but largely just too surreal escapades that marry fantasy and fiction on his trip. This is a very strong effort from Joaquin Phoenix as the gentle but almost permanently bamboozled "Beau". He gives himself fully to the part and engenders frustration and sympathy successfully as the story progresses - in fits and starts - towards it's conclusion. Nathan Lane chips in well - if completely over the top - too, as surgeon "Roger" and we save the best til last with a rather bizarre denouement that sees Patti LuPone (his mother, "Mona") in an whole new light. At times the writing can be witty but for me this is just way, way too long and episodic. It's as if Ari Aster had an accumulation of ideas for his character that he has, almost "Forrest Gump" style, stitched together in the hope that what emerges at the end has been enjoyable to watch. I'm not great at the outlandish. It's not that it needs a solid beginning, middle and end but somehow I prefer the plot to be rooted in something just a bit more tangible than this is. I am glad that I saw it in a cinema, but I can safely say I won't watch it again.

It's way too long with no coherent storyline to keep you involved or interested. The production values are very high and the look and feel of the movie are very rich... but it's not enough to hold the three hours together. Beau is the unluckiest person ever... and he is constantly jumping from the frying pan into the fire (and through no fault of his own). This becomes incredibly tedious. I watched the movie in 4 parts. No way I could sit through it in one. I've watched three hour movies that just fly by... this one went by at a snail's pace and you really felt it.

Zero spoilers in here. Absolutely wonderful. I can't do a big braining on what everything means in this crazy topsy-turvy roller-coaster of a movie, but it's one hell of an entertaining ride if you just sit back and enjoy it. For me, this movie needed to be watched the same way I watched Lost Highway - don't try to understand it, just be open to being frightened and entertained. Suffering from generalized anxiety myself, the first part of the movie is absolutely brilliant, showing the world through the lens of someone with a severe case of anxiety. Everything is over the top, and the attention to detail is stunning. The movie devolves further and further into madness, somewhat akin to the way it did in Mother, except not in a frustrating way, but rather an action-packed and crazy, sometimes touching way. Oh, and hilarious. There are such funny moments in this movie, often absurdly so. I didn't read up on anything before watching this movie, and I had no idea it was going to be three hours. I didn't know Ari Aster made it, and frankly I didn't know who he was. Looking it up afterwards, I see he made Midsommar, which I found tedious and boring, and Hereditary, which I absolutely loved. I can definitely see how someone could hate this movie. I can also sympathize with being frustrated with it if trying to understand everything. I think the best way to watch this is popcorn. Watch this like you'd watch a popcorn flick, except expect absurdities instead of explosions (though we do get explosions here, too). That's how you'll be entertained by this amazing movie. I'll be watching this again. Oh, and Joaquin Phoenix deserves an Oscar for this performance. Absolutely his most impressive performance so far. Watch this. It's special. Even if you hate it, you won't regret watching it.